


this is the golden age of something good and right and real

by bugabisous (mariafernanda)



Series: this love is a tangled web [6]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Ladrien | Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Post-Episode: s03 Miracle Queen (The Battle of the Miraculous Part 2), dragon!Adrien, he's still chat noir too though, this is part of a series of connected stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:29:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22854004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mariafernanda/pseuds/bugabisous
Summary: Gone were the days when he denied his feelings for Marinette, and he now allowed his mind to drift to her smile or the exact cadence of her voice as often as he allowed himself to fantasize about Ladybug confessing her love for him. It was complicated, sure, but he was in love with both of them, and he suspected that wouldn’t change any time soon.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: this love is a tangled web [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1634344
Comments: 59
Kudos: 262





	1. you come around and the armor falls

**Author's Note:**

> The title for both the fic and the chapter(s) is from State of Grace by Taylor Swift.
> 
> This particular piece is another turning point for this AU, in my opinion, and will have a second chapter (the POV for that will be Marinette's, as opposed to Adrien's like in this first chapter).

Adrien didn’t have patrol that day, but he hadn’t wanted to stay copped out in his room. As much as Longg was a nice kwami, though, he decided to transform as Shenron in order to still have Plagg to talk to – because he was still close to Plagg in ways no other kwami could even begin to understand and even though he kept complaining about Adrien being a lovesick kitten, he had been surprisingly quiet about his growing feelings for Marinette, only teasing him once or twice during his admittedly ridiculous long gushing sessions about her many qualities and the particular color of her eyes.

Gone were the days when he denied his feelings for her, and he now allowed his mind to drift to her smile or the exact cadence of her voice as often as he allowed himself to fantasize about Ladybug confessing her love for him. It was complicated, sure, but he was in love with both of them, and he suspected that wouldn’t change any time soon. He looked forward to patrolling nights just to share a moment with either of them, he waited for akumas so he could banter with Ladybug and he impatiently paced around in anticipation of each school day where he would spend some time with Marinette, even if there was some added distance in those instances.

He closed his eyes and felt the wind against his face, breathing the city in. His mind wandered to Ladybug cuddled up against him as she slept, her tiny hand grasping at the material of the suit as she burrowed closer to his chest. In his mind she turned to Marinette, sleeping soundly on his shoulder during the train ride to London, over and over again until his heart was working overtime to keep up with all the emotions.

When he felt someone land next to him his mind jumped to Marinette instantly. There was the faint aroma of apples and sugar that he had come to associate with her, and the measured steps the person was taking towards him reminded him of their patrols together.

He opened his eyes and turned around with a smile, but was shocked to find Ladybug in the place he had expected Marinette to be. He schooled his expression, for Shenron was closer to Viperactive than he was to Ladybug and he was nowhere near the neighborhood of being as close to her as Chat Noir was. The mental gymnastics of juggling two superhero personas around two girls he loved were starting to mess with his head, clearly. “Hello, Ladybug,” he finally said.

She smiled at him warmly, “Hey,” she paused, “Adrien.”

He realized that, for all the time he spent around his lady, she must not have known the superhero name he had chosen for this particular version of himself. “It’s Shenron,” he replied, “I don’t know who this Adrien dude is, but it’s certainly not me.”

“Ah,” she grinned, sitting down next to him. Their shoulders brushed for a second before she moved away and started playing with one of her pigtails, “I’m sorry. You look quite like Adrien Agreste over there,” she pointed at a billboard that was nearby.

“While I’m glad you seem to think me handsome enough to be a model,” he said, enjoying the faint blush that came to her cheeks, “I’m afraid that I have to disappoint you. No autographs will be signed today.”

“What a pity,” she mockingly brought a hand to her forehead, “I wonder how I will survive this heartbreak.”

“I believe you can do anything,” he replied honestly. Perhaps, if the look she gave him in return was any indication, a bit too honest for the relationship Shenron and Ladybug shared.

She covered her face with her hands for a few seconds before shaking her head and turning to look at him, “I did come around with a purpose, tough. I wanted to ask you what had made you go out tonight,” she replied, suddenly sounding worried, “Is there anything wrong at your house? I don’t want to intrude, but I did get the feeling that you don’t enjoy being there a lot.”

His heart warmed at the fact that his lady had remembered enough about his home life to be worried about him, but he couldn’t allow her to be worried about something that wasn’t about to change anytime soon and that he was used to anyway.

“No, Ladybug, nothing like that,” he rushed to say, “I just, I had some stuff to think through.”

She drew closer to him, piercing him with her bluebell stare, “What about? If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

Before he had time to think about it, he blurted out, “Matters of the heart, I’m sorry to say.”

Her lips formed a gasp, but no sound came out. He shrugged, deciding he was already deep enough that there was no use in backtracking and she wouldn’t even know he was Chat Noir so it wasn’t as weird. He had never pursued her as Adrien, so there was no harm in baring his feelings for Marinette to Ladybug, and he might even get some advice out of the deal.

“I’m in love, you see,” he smiled, looking up and settling his gaze in the vague direction of Marinette’s house.

“Oh,” she said, her tone odd to his ears in a way he couldn’t identify. “Kagami?”

It was a fair assumption, of course. She _had_ pulled Kagami away from him and what looked like a date the day Miracle Queen attacked.

“No,” he replied, a smile coming to his lips, “it’s not Kagami, actually.”

Her brow furrowed, and he suspected that if the mask hadn’t gotten in the way he would have been able to see a crease between her eyebrows. “Then… who?” she asked, sounding lost.

“It’s Viperactive,” he said, then clarified, “you know, my patrol partner. Marinette.”

She gasped and, inexplicably, blushed. He looked at her for a long moment, trying to understand her strange reaction but ultimately coming up blank.

“I had always seen her as a friend,” he continued, relieved to be able to talk about this with someone that was bound to have more emotional intelligence that Plagg, “one of my very first friends, in fact. We didn’t start out with the right foot, and it hurts to think about the amazing person I would have missed on if I hadn’t apologized and explained to her what had happened,” he felt himself blush and ducked his head, not daring to look at Ladybug, “so I’m glad she gave me a second chance. She’s very important to me.”

“I…I can see that,” she finally said, after a few seconds pause. Her next words seemed rushed and they left her mouth in a stutter, almost if she hadn’t wanted to ask them or had been trying not to, “What changed?”

“Hmm?”

“What made you change your mind about her?” she whispered.

“I don’t think I _changed my mind_ , you know?” he turned to look at Ladybug, but found her looking at the distance, “It was more like, I was suddenly confronted with feelings that had always been there. These past few weeks patrolling with her, I just…” he trailed off, clearing his throat, “I saw a side of her that I had always known existed, but had never been privy to. She’s just, she’s _so_ wonderful and once she unleashed her power of awesome on me,” he joked, making motions with his hands as if he was casting a spell, “I was just _gone_ for her, like a lovesick k- puppy.”

“Oh,” she breathed out, sounding dazed, but he didn’t dare looking at her because he was embarrassed about having gushed so much about another girl in front of her, and then she added “You really like her,” in a surprised voice.

“Yeah,” he smiled, “I really, really do.”


	2. pierce the room like a cannon ball

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Adrien's confession, with Marinette being totally cool and not-freaking-out about it at all, of course.

Marinette was desperately trying to appear as calm and collected as she possibly could, considering the circumstances, but it was hard to keep herself contained when her world had just been turned upside down.

Finding out that Adrien liked her would have been shocking enough, let alone hearing him say he was _in love_ with her. And that was without adding the cherry on top of the whammy ice cream: He knew she was Viperactive. At some point she had given herself away, she had been sloppy and he had found out her identity, which could be potentially more disastrous than he imagined.

The logical part of her knew that she should use this as an excuse to retire Viperactive, but she also knew that it was hypocritical to even think about that since Adrien had no idea that Marinette knew he was Shenron. And, even if she felt like a silly girl in love – which she was, she couldn’t bring herself to give up these patrolling nights by Adrien’s side, the ease with which their relationship developed on rooftops instead of classrooms, and the intoxicating way he would look at her sometimes.

“Adrien?” she whispered, breaking the silence and startling him. It had been several minutes since he had last spoken, and he seemed to be lost in thought before she brought him out of it.

“Hmm?”

“How did you know?” she asked and saw his brow crease in confusion, “Her identity, Adrien, how did you know? Did she _tell you_?”

His green eyes grew wide, his entire demeanor showing how alarmed he had become at her question. He quickly turned to look at her, waving his arms around in frantic motions as he shook his head. “No! No, no, she would never, she wouldn’t betray someone’s trust like that,” he rushed to say, “I just, huh, I… noticed some similarities and then I,” he paused, “as I started falling for her, it was hard not to notice more of her and eventually I just… realized,” he chuckled, “and I said something in class that I had said during patrol, later, and something about her reaction just confirmed it, I guess,” he shrugged.

“You just… noticed, that’s it?” she asked, heart pounding. Suddenly, sitting next to him as Ladybug seemed like the most dangerous thing she could do. If Adrien had figured Marinette out, how much would it take for him to connect Ladybug with either Viperactive or Marinette? How long until she slipped and he became wise to the truth?

She had to leave, now. Still reeling from his confession, she wasn’t in the best of conditions to avoid slipping up and giving herself away and, as such, every second she remained was a risk.

“Please, don’t take her miraculous away,” he said, probably taking her silence as her considering if she was going to strip the miraculous from them, “It wasn’t her fault, she doesn’t deserve to pay for my mistakes. Take mine!”

“I’m not taking neither any of your miraculous away, Adrien,” she replied, not wanting him to think he had messed up or feel bad for something he had no control over. “Don’t worry, you’re still part of the team,” she squeezed his shoulder and stood up to leave. “Goodbye.”

“Bye, Ladybug,” he replied.

And that was exactly when the telltale boom product of an akuma was heard on the streets nearby.

“Oh, _crap_.”

.

.

As she lied in bed later that night, she was surprised to see that her thoughts weren’t on Adrien’s confession or the fact that he knew one of her secret identities. Instead, her mind was occupied thinking about Chat Noir: His smile, the way he looked at her and, most importantly, the fact that he hadn’t shown up to the akuma battle that night.

She had fought alongside Tortuga – which was the name Kagami had chosen, this time not in Japanese, in order to throw Hawkmoth off the scent – and Shenron. The akuma hadn’t been hard to beat, as the three of them had worked well together, but she couldn’t help but worry about the possible reasons Chat had failed to show up.

She felt as if she was standing on a precipice, looking at the abyss of the truth but not really grasping what she saw. Her worry for Chat was clouding her judgment or, perhaps, the first thought she had upon arriving home was the truth that she was working hard to deny.

Fighting an akuma side by side with Adrien, as Ladybug, was different than handling petty thieves with him as Viperactive. It was different, but _not_ less familiar. He seemed to read her expressions as if she had yelled instructions out loud, just instinctively reacting to everything she did on the battlefield. While Kagami was competent and had incredibly great reflexes, something about the way Adrien had handled himself out there had reminded her of the partnership she and Chat had cultivated for over a year now.

Her mind was screaming the question she didn’t dare try to answer. She couldn’t ask it out loud because even if Tikki couldn’t exactly _tell_ her, she knew that she would be able to read the truth in the kwami’s expression if she did ask. She couldn’t risk having her suspicions confirmed, not when everything had already changed so much in just one night.

She also didn’t want to have her suspicions denied, she had to admit. The moment she started considering the crazy notion that Adrien was Chat Noir, she had felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders – to have both boys she loved be the same one would be a gift that not even a girl with the power of luck on her side should be able to receive – and she didn’t want to be proven wrong.

She knew that if she called Chat Noir and told him she had decided to reveal their identities, he would do so without question. The prospect of knowing who he was with total certainty thrilled her as much as it scared her. She knew the risks, though, and she had seen the consequences of her falling in love with Chat Noir.

She didn’t want to be proven wrong, because then she had to choose between two boys who she loved and who loved her. But she didn’t want to be proven right either, because then she would have to give up on him – too mindful of the risks, of white hair and a white suit and blue eyes that pierced her core and made her heart feel cold.

She closed her eyes, ignored all the signs, and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh well. I did say it was a game changer, didn't I?

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be back with the next chapter... as soon as I write it, whooops?


End file.
